Zoo City is not science fiction in the classic sense. There are no flying saucers, sexy body suits, slimy aliens, or sterilized outer space stations. There is witchcraft, 419, drugs, and genetic mutation. Zoo City, written by South Africa’s Lauren Beukes, is certainly among the small cluster of African novels that have tried to stay true to the strange and grotesque world of Amos Tutuola and D. O. Fagunwa, the fathers of African fantasy. In 2011, the novel won Beukes the prestigious Arthur C. Clark Award for Science Fiction. There is no doubt that Zoo City is the reason that expectations are sky high for Beukes’ fourth novel The Shinning Girls, set to drop on June 4.